GeM Boosts Market Access for Women Entrepreneurs in India

By: Women Entrepreneurs Review Team | Wednesday, 12 August 2026

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized the importance of Government e-Marketplace (GeM) as one of the major players responsible for driving the process of digitization within the Indian government’s procurement system on August 11, 2026. The comments came as GeM marks its 10 years of operations as India's centralised digital procurement platform.

The Prime Minister spoke about GeM’s journey for a decade and its role in helping India modernize its procurement process mentioning the article written by Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal. PM Modi also added that the use of technology has always been at the heart of the development of GeM, resulting in an efficient and transparent procurement process. He said that GeM has made ease of doing business easier by ensuring more competition among businesses.

Key Highlights:

• GeM expands procurement access for MSMEs and women entrepreneurs
• Digital platform strengthens transparency and competition in procurement
• GeM crosses ₹20 lakh crore in transactions over a decade

Speaking about the broader economic significance of the platform, the Prime Minister pointed out that GeM has significantly contributed towards empowering MSMEs as well as women entrepreneurs through increased access to the markets for procurement by the government. The digital platform has enabled small firms to have a level playing field by showcasing their goods and services and accessing government procurement.

In another post on X, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal referred to GeM as a big success story that embodies the technology-led vision of the Prime Minister with regard to the transformation of public procurement processes.

In this connection, he stressed the positive impact that GeM had made on various facets of the procurement process, such as transparency, efficiency, quality, inclusiveness and accountability. In addition to increasing efficiency of the procurement process, GeM has facilitated market inclusion.

The GeM initiative (2016) was created as an online procurement system for use by government organizations for purchasing goods and services. This is a platform that was set up to facilitate easier and more efficient procurement processes for the government organizations.

During the last decade, GeM has been transformed into a digital platform that connects government purchasers to a wide network of vendors and service providers. The growth of this platform has improved accessibility to government procurement for MSMEs, startups, female entrepreneurs, and companies based in small towns and cities.

Use of digital technology to conduct some procurement operations has helped create a more competitive environment by decreasing entry barriers and increasing participation of suppliers.

With GeM now entering its second decade, the government is working towards making the platform a strong platform with respect to being competitive and inclusive. The total volume of transactions through GeM has crossed ₹20 lakh crore, which has helped in expanding the space for small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), startups, and women-owned businesses to participate in government procurement activities. Such wider participation is beneficial in strengthening the overall ecosystem of businesses in India and promoting entrepreneurship in the country.